Chapter Forty~four

Not What I Expected

Part Three

~*~

 

 

In the evening, Madame Brandra walked with Kazia again to visit with Eaphan, but they were told that he must rest and were turned away.

They strolled slowly around the courtyard until sunset. Kazia suggested that they visit Amelys before climbing the stairs again, but she did not appear to be home.

Amelys had spent much of the week in meetings with the Queen and her cabinet. No news had reached Kazia from those meetings, but they had not yet declared war on Valesk, and Kazia took that as a hopeful sign.

Returning to the staircase, they encountered Neiphi, already on her way up.

“Neiphi, what are you doing about at this hour?” Kazia asked.

“I heard you were in the bailey, and I had to come see for myself,” Neiphi answered. “You are out of your room!”

“Everyone is so pleased,” Kazia said.

“If Neiphi is here, I think I shall wait for the Mistress,” Brandra said. “Neiphi, will you see Kazia up the stairs?”

“I really am fine,” Kazia protested, but accepted Neiphi's accompaniment.

Halfway up the first flight, she had to pause a moment.

“Fine, are you?” Neiphi asked.

“Don't chide me, child,” Kazia answered, but with a rueful smile.

They finally reached the top of the staircase, and turning down Kazia's hallway found Amelys coming away from Kazia's apartment.

“There you are,” Amelys said. “Kazia, you worried me.”

“Apologies, Mistress,” Kazia answered. “I only went to see Eaphan. Please, come inside.”

“Yes,” Amelys said. “There are things we must discuss.”

Kazia was tired and small aches were rearing up after her trip across the castle grounds, so Amelys insisted on making her comfortable before they spoke.

Neiphi put on the kettle while Amelys helped Kazia into a nightdress. They settled into the sitting room, Kazia nestling onto the settee and tucking her bare feet under her and a blanket about her shoulders.

“I have difficult things to tell you,” Amelys said. “I'm not certain Neiphi should hear them.”

“She'll hear them eventually, I've learned,” Kazia replied with a smile for her Apprentice. “Is this about Abrizhen?”

Amelys nodded, but still kept her voice low while Neiphi prepared tea at the other end of the room.

“In part. Master Ilianus and I met with the Queen this afternoon. This will not be an easy matter. Other defectors of Valeskan nobility have been of far lower rank than your brother, and since you are already here, there's a fear that harboring both of you could be seen as open hostility.”

“But Valesk has attacked Caedra, right here in the Capital,” Kazia protested. “Surely hostilities are open already.”

Amelys shook her head.

“No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, and there is no clear evidence as of yet.”

“What can we do?”

“If it comes to it, Tamyn will take Abrizhen to Thalesia.”

“And Tamyn would leave with him, then?”

“He would have to resign his position here, yes.”

Kazia sighed as melancholy set over her.

“Well, I won't be selfish,” she said. “If that is best for them, then perhaps they should just forego all this trouble and do that now. I'd rather have Abrizhen safe sooner than later.”

“There is another matter,” Amelys said carefully, “Now that the transmitter is complete, Kelvaran will be leaving us.” She paused for a long moment. “He will return to Valesk.”

Kazia stared at Amelys with incomprehension.

Amelys kept her emotional state studiously even, but Kazia could feel a strain at the edges of her resolve.

“No,” Kazia said finally. “No, why would he?”

“He will offer his loyalty to Halany and attempt to gain a position in his service,” Amelys said rigidly. “The transmitter will let us hear anything Kelvaran is able to discover.”

“This is madness,” Kazia said quietly.

Her body drained of all warmth as the cold paralysis of fear took her over.

“They will kill him. You do know that?”

“He hopes to prevail upon former friends there to plead his case,” Amelys told her. “If he makes his advance to them carefully, he does stand a good chance of succeeding.”

“You can't allow this, Mistress,” Kazia pleaded. “Forbid him, please, you must.”

A knock came at the door then and Neiphi hurried the tea over, then went to answer.

Kazia didn't take her gaze from Amelys.

“We are coming on desperate times, Kazia,” Amelys said. “We must know Halany's plans.”

Neiphi came back into the room followed by Madame Brandra, who stood silently, taking in the tense situation. She came to sit beside Kazia on the settee.

“Kazia, my darling,” she said quietly. “I have just spoken with Lord Meratha-”

“Do you know of this idiocy they are up to?” Kazia demanded.

“Kazia, I'm so sorry to tell you,” Brandra said, taking Kazia's hand. “I'm afraid that Sir Palanaida has passed.”

Kazia stared at the floor, unseeing. She pulled her hand away from Brandra's and it dropped heavily into her lap.

“But... he was recovering,” she whispered.

“It was more complicated than we knew,” Brandra said quietly.

Kazia's whole body felt heavy, as if she were turning to stone. Then her sorrow and her fear turned cold in her heart, turned to a blinding anger.

She stood and stormed out of the room, through the office and into the laboratory.

Brandra and Neiphi gave Amelys a questioning look and she waved a hand toward the door. Together, they hurried to follow Kazia, and reached the lab just in time to see her place one hand on the old transmitter battery, and one on the portal.

~~~*~~~

 

Kazia landed on her knees and put her hands out to steady herself. She had come out into Kelvaran's sitting room, where he sat in an armchair next to the fireplace before her.

Kelvaran registered no surprise. He passed a cursory glance over her distraught form, still wearing only a white linen nightdress, feet bare, her eyes swelling and streaking her face with tears. He looked away impassively and drained the glass of wine in his hand before placing it on a side table.

The only light came from the fireplace, and his face was cast in shadow until he turned from Kazia to gaze into the fire. His emotional aura was calm, but only because of that same numbness of all energy spent that gripped Kazia herself.

“They will kill you,” she said through clenched teeth. “You can't go.”

“Amelys...” he said. ”She shouldn't have told you.”

“What should I have been told then when you disappeared? How would you have her explain-”

“Why should you need any explanation?” he said with that steely edge to his voice.

Kazia looked away into the fire as well.

“You know why,” she said quietly.

She felt Kelvaran's heart bolt against his measured restraint, but he brought it immediately to heel again.

“I don't know anything,” he said coldly. “I don't know if I believe-”

“Just believe that they will kill you. Or if not, they will lock you away forever. Please, don't do this.”

“This has been long in the planning,” he answered. “I can only hope we haven't waited too late.”

He pushed up out of his chair and approached Kazia, motioning her to rise and gently handing her up off of the floor.

Kazia wiped a tear away from her cheek, then looked into Kelvaran's eyes, studying his face. His jaw was set, his expression unreadable, his internal sentiment too ambiguous to name. Kazia wondered if Amelys had been training him in her ways of temperamental control.

“They will kill you if you go,” she whispered.

“They will kill countless innocents if I don't,” he whispered in return.

Kazia shook her head ruefully.

“You can say such a thing and not believe that I might care for you?”

“Don't waste your effort. I will not be moved,” he said resolutely.

She stared unblinking into his eyes, a million words trapped behind her lips, none of which she felt any right to say.

At last, she only gave a defeated nod, then turned abruptly to go as quickly as she could through Kelvaran's office and out into the hallway.

She found Madame Brandra and Neiphi waiting outside the door. Brandra had brought Kazia's wrapper, and she pulled it on over her nightdress.

“Mistress-” Neiphi said, but Kazia put up a warning hand.

“I need to sleep,” Kazia said stiffly. “I'll want to get back to work tomorrow.”

 

~~~*~~~